Today, in the run-up to the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15), Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze talked with national stakeholders about how to halt the global destruction of nature and reverse the trend in biodiversity conservation. A new post-2020 global biodiversity framework is to be adopted at CBD COP15. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the national preparatory conference with a video message. Representatives from NGOs, science, business, youth movements, local and national government then discussed the question "What are we taking with us to Kunming?".
Federal Minister Svenja Schulze remarked: "Now is the time to begin a new chapter in the conservation of global biodiversity. Apart from the climate crisis, tackling biodiversity loss is one of the key challenges of our time. This has now been recognised by the international community and national stakeholders. My goal is to closely link biodiversity conservation and climate action. We started this process last year with the German EU Council Presidency and the EU Biodiversity Strategy, and have continued our efforts just recently with the decisions taken by the G7 countries. We have centuries of destroying nature behind us, now a decade of restoration begins. We can succeed if we join forces."
The new global biodiversity framework, which is to be adopted at the upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP-15) in Kunming, China, will become our most important guideline on how we treat nature over the coming decades. It must ensure that the protection and sustainable use, but also the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources, become the focus of action worldwide by setting ambitious, but also realistic and measurable goals. The recently launched UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 underscores the enormous importance of the coming years for biodiversity conservation around the world.
Federal states, cities, municipalities and districts are important partners in implementing the new global biodiversity framework. They have already expressed their commitment to international biodiversity policy in the Edinburgh Declaration. On behalf of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the alliance Kommunen für biologische Vielfalt (Municipalities for Biodiversity), Federal Minister Svenja Schulze called on all cities, municipalities and districts in Germany to sign this declaration in the coming months.